Matthew Duss

Matthew Duss is a foreign policy analyst and a contributing writer for the Prospect. You can follow him on Twitter @mattduss.

Recent Articles

NIE: IRAN NOT DEAD SET ON IGNITING APOCALYPSE.

Interesting:

A new assessment by American intelligence agencies concludes that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003 and that the program remains on hold, contradicting an assessment two years ago that Tehran was working inexorably toward building a bomb.

[...]

The assessment, a National Intelligence Estimate that represents the consensus view of all 16 American spy agencies, states that Tehran’s ultimate intentions about gaining a nuclear weapon remain unclear, but that Iran’s “decisions are guided by a cost-benefit approach rather than a rush to a weapon irrespective of the political, economic and military costs.

AS IF TO EXHUME PARODY, STRANGLE IT WITH PIANO WIRE, AND REBURY IT.

Scolding Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for what he considers unacceptably conciliatory rhetoric at last week's peace conference, Commentary's Eric Trager suspects the source of Olmert's outrageous moral unclarity: Jimmy Carter's Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid and Mearsheimer and Walt's The Israel Lobby and U.S Foreign Policy:

DEFENDING JOURNALISTIC MALPRACTICE WITH COLONIAL-ERA RACISM.

I hope you're enjoying the NROBS saga as much as I am. If not, go read about it. Tom Edsall has done some great work here. (Greenwald and Sullivan also have some good follow-up.)

ENGAGEMENT: PEOPLE LIKE IT.

I just got back from a CMEP-sponsored panel on Annapolis and what it all means, and though there were differing views on where things would go from here, all the panelists were unanimous in their relief and enthusiasm for renewed U.S. engagement in the process.

Daniel Levy, who was one of today's panelists, wrote this last Tuesday:

YOU MAKE A VERY ADULTEROUS POINT.

Last week, Chris Hayes had a great story in the Nation about the phenomenon of the right wing email forward, and how this new form of "folk media" serves to keep various rumors and urban legends alive. One of the most notorious of these is the notion that Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim extremist who plans to throw a burkha over the Statue of Liberty and institute shari'a law after taking his oath of office on the Qur'an while munching on falafel, or something.

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